Beware of the Neighborhood.

16 - You had been warned

Two days later, Kevin had still not called me. I saw him in school, but he was never alone, Paul, George, or maybe his football team members always surrounded him. That evening; I called him, but no answer. I left 10 voice messages but still nothing. Finally I headed out. It was surprisingly warm outside. I started walking in the direction of his house but then decided against it.

After some time I found him lurking in the woods. I knew where he might be and instead of going to his house, I had decided to come out into the woods. It was quite dark in there, the sun was about to set and the weather looked quite gloomy. I found him in the same place where I had seen him, when for the first time we had entered the woods while going to Veronica's house the other day. I found him sitting on the ground, where he had placed a huge blanket, resting his back against a huge tree bark. He had also carried a couple of coke cans.

He turned as he heard some noise, and smiled dully as he saw me.

"What are you doing here?" he asked.

"What do you think?" I said.

"Looking for me?" he said smirking,

"Thought you'd be here" I said going next to him, and sitting down on the blanket on the ground. He rested his head against the tree, his eyes closed.

"How'd you know?" he asked slowly.

I looked around me, taking in the quite, calm, and peaceful environment around and said "Wasn't hard to figure out!"

"Oh! I just thought no one would figure it out. I needed some time alone so...." he said.

"Well, let's be alone together then. Jason is annoying me so much" I answered.

Actually, Jason wasn't annoying me; he had gone to meet Paul, but why should I tell this to Kevin?

I just wanted to be there next to him.

I picked up the can of coke, which he had kept on the blanket and handed it to him. He took it absentmindedly, but said nothing. I just sat there, quietly. I didn't quite know what to do.

After a few minutes of awkward silence he said

"Tell me honestly, why did you come?"

"Because I was worried about you Kev, ever since we got back you have been acting weird. You don't talk much, you don't even reply, and there is this seriousness in your eyes which worries me! It looks as if you have grown five years in a matter of days." I said looking at him.

He slowly opened his eyes, looked at me and said with a sigh "what did you expect? I just found out that my mom died because she cared too much about a teenage boy who didn't."

"Look, I know it's hard. It's my fault. I shouldn't have forced you to go!" I said shaking my head, looking down.

"You didn't. I wanted to find out the truth as well. As I said, I thought it'll help me get some sort of closure" he said, slowly placing his hand on mine. And then continued saying

"But even though, you don't know how hard it is to go home, and still feel like an outsider. To know that there is really no one home to listen to you no matter how much you want to talk, no one to understand you."

"Don't say that" I whispered.

"I mean it. The other day; when I had just found out the truth about my mom, I went home and my dad was there. I was sad, I felt lost. I felt as if...as if I had lost her all over again and I just needed someone to talk to. And you know what he asked me the moment he saw me? He said 'how's homework going?' can you believe it? I mean, really! What sort of dad would come home after days, find his only son and ask about homework? I really needed to talk to him Ash. Tell him how I was feeling, tell him about mom. But he didn't even ask anything else, instead he directly went in his room, and started working on his damn laptop, pretending I didn't even exist. I really feel, what is the point of staying with him? When I feel so alone. I feel...would he even realise if I wasn't there? Would he?" he asked, tossing the empty can aside angrily.